High Purity and Yield Separation of Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Dispersed in Aqueous Solutions with Density Gradient Ultracentrifugation Using Mixed Dispersants of Polysaccharides and Surfactants

The heterogeneity of as-synthesized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) prevents their potential applications in high-resolution field-effect transistors, nanoscale sensors, and conductive films. In the present study, we demonstrate the development of a new selective-separation procedure for collecting semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNTs) with a high purity from as-synthesized SWNTs individually dispersed with mixed dispersing agents consisting of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in water using density gradient ultracentrifugation (DGU). Ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-vis-NIR) absorption, resonance Raman, and NIR photoluminescence spectroscopies revealed that the s-SWNTs were enriched to a purity of more than 97%, and that the recovery was approximately 40% through the DGU treatment. This separation strategy is expected to impact the application fields using s-SWNTs. (c) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics